The Ninth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
(MCU), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, like Thor and Iron Man before it,
gets at least a second film. In Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) we’ve
already learned Cap’s origin story and how he helped to save the U.S. and the
world from the evil Red Skull/Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his Hydra force
at the end of World War II. Frozen in
time and in ice, Captain America wakes nearly 70 years later and is almost
immediately introduced into the battle to save the world, which is the central
plot of The Avengers (2012).

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansoon) and Captain America (Chris Evans)
are the only two returning Avengers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Now we are half way into a second cycle of films, which
promises to culminate with Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). As part of this
second cycle, we’ve already seen Iron Man 3 (2013) and Thor: The Dark World (2013), which continued our story forward, though the connection between the
two isn’t quite clear, at least not yet.

Having read the more recent Captain America Winter
Soldier comics, I’ve been chosen to write the review for Trophy Unlocked. (This
review is coming a week after the film’s initial release, due to personal
reasons.) If you’ve read the comics, but
have not seen the films, know that the Winter Soldier character is pretty much
the same, though his background has been altered to fit the more current Marvel
Cinematic/Television Universe (including the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series). Rather than a Soviet trained assassin, the Winter Soldier is part of Hydra, the
enemy from the first Captain America, which returns here with all of its evil
intent still intact. (This make me think that the Soviets or Russians are
pretty much non-existent in the MCU as they don’t seem to make an appearance in
the WWII sequences from the first Captain America film nor do they appear to be
participating in S.H.I.E.L.D.)

I will not go into details of the story, as there are
many moments of suspense that giving away the plot would ruin. The fighting and
other action sequences, of which the movie is full of, are staged very
well. Many times in action films, the
actually fighting sequences are cut in such a way that the viewer cannot always
tell what’s going on and who is involved. This is certainly not the case here.

The acting is good, though no one is going to be
nominated for any major acting awards. Making return engagements from Captain
America and other Avenger franchise films are Chris Evans (Captain America), Sebastian Stan
(Bucky Barnes), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow)
and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). New additions are Anthony Mackie (Falcon)
and Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce. All are good, too, though for many there
is less acting and more physicality involved. Johansson is turning into quite
the action star, which was not something I would have predicted at the
beginning of her career.

A very interesting addition to the cast is Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce.

There is sort of a continuity issue that’s been bugging
me in the MCU since the Marvel One Shot, Agent Carter (2013), from the Iron Man 3 (2013) home video release. This One Shot focused on Peggy Carter (Hayley
Atwell), the Cap’s handler and love interest from the first Captain America film.
In the first film in the MCU, Iron Man (2008), the name S.H.I.E.L.D. is treated
almost as an afterthought, though it is obvious what the long unwieldy name of
the organization Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) represents, Strategic Homeland
Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, spells it out. However, in Agent
Carter and in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we’re led to believe that
this organization has been around since World War II. Originally presented as a
sort of Homeland Security that was being put together on the fly, now it’s
being presented as a worldwide espionage agency (not a division of the U.S.
government or U.N.) that has been around for nearly 70 years. Nitpicky stuff,
but it is important that a long running franchise keeps true to its own story
points and doesn’t retcon for the sake of a new story angle.As far as the movie goes, my biggest complaint is the overuse of deus ex machinas. Using it once in a movie is bad enough, like pulling a plot parachute cord, but there are at least two times in this film our heroes are in a bad situation with no way out, but manage to escape. Maybe there are deleted scenes that had to be cut to keep the run time down, but I really don't think so. I fear it is rather an example of the filmmakers feeling as long as they can keep the action going, no one's going to really know what happened, or care.

One more bitch, about the end credits. Joe Simon and Jack
Kirby’s credit for the original idea that the film is based on is smaller than
the stunt extras’ names. Better than no credit at all or credit only to Stan
Lee, it still is a disservice to the originators of the comic book from which
this is taken. Also, you need to stay to end of the credits for this one. If
you’re not a credit watcher then you will miss out; a lesson I would have
thought Pixar and the other MCU films would have taught you.

Overall, I really liked Captain America: The Winter
Soldier and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is following the MCU.
If you haven’t seen any of the other films, you need to at least see Captain
America: The First Avenger, as this will make more sense to you if you have.
But really, you should see all of the films in the MCU as together they make
for quite a ride. And there is more to come from the MCU, including a planned Captain America 3.